From: Richard L Collier
Sent: Thursday, April 23, 2009 12:28
PM
To: 'range@albany.edu'; Virginia E
Eubanks; Theresa A Pardo; Ray Bromley; R Michael Range; Nicholas M Fahrenkopf;
Nan Carroll; Josh Sussman; John T Schmidt; John Monfasani; Jane Domaracki; Erin
M Bell; Edward M. Cupoli; Candace A Merbler
Cc: Gail Cameron
Subject: RE: Senate Handbook
Michael,
I'll
look over the whole thing thoroughly but not until this weekend. Thanks for
keeping this "alive" (it's easy to see why such meta-business of
governance tends to get shoved to the back burner year after year.)
I
did read section V. and was going along fine until I came to the first sentence
of the last paragraph. I was not familiar with (or cognizant of) that use of
"cognizant". A Google search convinces me that you (and a few other
people in the world) use it correctly and would readily understand the meaning.
Perhaps “…are advisory to the President and thus to any administrative unit
affected, such advice….”
Since the actions and recommendations of the Senate and its
Councils and Committees are advisory to the President, and hence to the
cognizant administrative unit, such advice should reflect as much as possible
the voice of the Faculty and other members of the senate, separately from any
administrative voice. Consequently, ex officio members of the Senate and its
Councils who are members of the administration should abstain from voting on
bills or other recommendations, especially in matters that will be referred to
their own administrative unit.
As
for the second sentence of the last paragraph, it seems to me that this calls
for an amendment to the Senate Charter making all members of councils and
committees who are ex officio by virtue of their administrative position non-voting
ex officio members. I realize that this is precisely the advice you, John and I
along with several other SEC members received from George, and it is the same
advice Nikki Kotari and Dan Truchan gave the SEC in complaining about UAC’s
dysfunction a couple of years ago. I don’t think we should put it in the
Handbook without such an amendment, since the admonition contradicts the
current letter of the Charter. In any case, even a Charter amendment can’t take
away the voting rights of ex officio administrators on the Senate—that would
require a Bylaws amendment.
If
we’re not ready to propose a Charter amendment (applying only to councils and
committees), I suggest for the time being this sentence in the Handbook be
changed to something like: “Consequently, ex officio
members of the Senate and its Councils who are members of the administration
should abstain from voting on bills or other recommendations that directly
relate to their own administrative units.”
If a Charter amendment is later passed making administrative ex
office members of councils and committees non-voting members, then my
proposed sentence (or something like it) might be changed to
“Consequently, ex officio members of the Senate who are members of the
administration should abstain from voting on bills or other recommendations
that directly relate to their own administrative units.” The problem with
that is that this kind of implies the President should never vote and the
Provost should rarely vote. I don’t think this is the intent (or the problem),
though a review of the current ex officio members of the Senate might suggest
some winnowing:
Article II.
Section 2 — Composition of the Senate
2.1 The ex-officio
voting members of the Senate shall be the President, the Provost, the Dean of Undergraduate
Studies, the Dean of Graduate Studies, the Vice President for Research, the Vice
President for Student Affairs, the Vice President for Finance and Business,
Senate officers, the University Senators to the Faculty Senate of the State
University of New York, the dean elected by the deans of the schools and
colleges, the president of the Graduate Student Organization, the president of
the Student Association, and the chair of the Student Association Senate.
Dick
and
. Since the actions and recommendations of the Senate and its Councils and
Committees are advisory to the President, and hence to the cognizant
administrative unit, such advice should reflect as much as possible the voice
of the Faculty and other members of the senate, separately from any
administrative voice. Consequently, ex officio members of the Senate
and its Councils who are members of the administration should abstain from
voting on bills or other recommendations, especially in matters that will be
referred to their own administrative unit.
-----Original Message-----
From: range@albany.edu [mailto:range@albany.edu]
Sent: Thursday, April 23, 2009 8:54 AM
To: R. Michael Range; Virginia E Eubanks; Theresa A Pardo; Richard L Collier;
Ray Bromley; R Michael Range; Nicholas M Fahrenkopf; Nan Carroll; Josh Sussman;
John T Schmidt; John Monfasani; Jane Domaracki; Erin M Bell; Edward M. Cupoli;
Candace A Merbler
Cc: Gail Cameron
Subject: Senate Handbook
Dear GOV Colleagues,
One of the agenda items for Monday will be the Senate Handbook. I have made some more edits to an earlier version of the draft, and the result is attached with all the edits/additions from various contributors tracked.
Thanks to all who worked on this. I also attach a clean version, which makes easier reading.
Please review this document carefully before the meeting. I particularly call your attention to section V on Parliamentary Procedures. That section addresses conflict of interest, etc., and it is important that all relevant concerns are addressed, and that there is broad agreement here. I encourage you to begin the discussion via e-mail and/or to circulate further edits/additions/etc.
I would like to circulate a reasonably final draft to the SEC after our meeting, and hopefully there is agreement to then circulate it to the senate for the 5/4 meeting.
Michael
Dr. R. Michael Range
Vice-Chair 2008-2009 University Senate
Department of Mathematics and Statistics State University of New York at Albany Albany, NY 12222 Tel. 518-442-4615 Fax 518-442-4731
e-mail: range@math.albany.edu